1980s – Page 7

James Taylor | Sweet Potato Pie

“Since his debut album in 1968, James Taylor has created a casserole of countless combinations packed with tasteful hints and familiar flavors; sounds that are a satisfying, addictive, delicious, traditional, memory-inducing musical meal, inducing an emotional warmth and pleasing, happy tingle,” (Backstage Ravinia). “Taylor standards such as the tender, nostalgic lullaby ‘Sweet Baby James’; the loving, adoring ‘Something In The Way She Moves’; the wistful, promising ‘Shower the People’; the dreamy, longing ‘Carolina In My Mind’; the joyful, grinning ‘Your Smiling Face’; and so many other favorites enforce this metaphor.

… Yet, while his musical lineage maybe be founded on solid pop hooks and structures, his legacy is deceptively diverse. Taylor’s muse often expands and expounds into myriad influences of folk, blues, gospel, soul, Motown, and country. Taylor’s quiet, introspective songs seductively speak of pain, ease the heartbreak, and sprinkle spices of surprise into the mundane … His selfless sharing of all his struggles and triumphs through music and actions struck cohesive chords with individual listeners and made universal connections with a mass audience.”

Alongside the hits are Taylor’s album tracks; for many artists, these often constitute filler, but not for JT. “Sweet Potato Pie” is one of the lighter-weight tunes on Taylor’s 1988 Never Die Young, one of his three platinum-selling 1980s album releases. But this earworm of a song is driven by the infectious shuffle groove and sunny mood that pervade the entire track. Beginning in F major, the key climbs to F# major at 1:55 and G major at 2:02 during the interlude.

The Communards | Don’t Leave Me This Way (feat. Sarah Jane Morris)

“Bronski Beat was originally Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski, and Larry Steinbachek, three flatmates who wanted to inject more political slants into the gay music scene at the time,” (The Bottom Five). “They achieved that right out of the gate; their heartbreaking debut 1984 single ‘Smalltown Boy’ went platinum in the UK, peaking at #3 there, and #1 on the US Dance chart. Somerville left Bronski Beat in 1985 and formed The Communards with multi-instrumentalist Richard Coles … The Communards’ 1986 debut LP is a mix of hi-NRG dance tunes and piano-based ballads, and it’s interesting to look at Spotify and see that the dancey songs are more popular by about an order of magnitude.

‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ was originally a Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes song, but Thelma Houston’s #1 cover from 1978 is the inspiration here. While not getting great critical reviews, the Communards’ version hit #1 on the US Dance charts and was the top-selling UK single for 1986. Somerville shares vocals with Sarah Jane Morris, a jazz/standards singer … The Communards disbanded in 1988. Richard Coles became an Anglican minister. Jimmy Somerville went solo; he stayed a presence in Euro/club scenes, and had a solo #1 US Dance single in 1995 with ‘Heartbeat.’”

Like Melvin’s and Houston’s versions, the Communards’ cover shifts from a minor verse to a parallel major chorus (Bb in this case for both), then back to the original key (first heard between 1:01 – 1:30). But this cover version takes the vocal glissando between the verse and chorus, prominently featured in Houston’s version, and supercharges it with both more range and longer duration (3:29 – 3:33), landing us in an energized C major for the balance of the tune.

Many thanks to regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Genesis | You Might Recall

“On the one side stood their proggy past; on the other, pop stardom. Even the album itself – released in tandem with a film of the same name on June 1, 1982, it chronicles the tours in support of 1980’s Duke and 1981’s Abacab – seems to be peeking ahead,” (Ultimate Classic Rock). “The fourth side features a handful of sleek tracks left over from the Duke sessions and 1982’s 3×3 EP.

‘The direction we took is very obvious, having started off in a very complex and technical background,’ (guitarist) Mike Rutherford told the Oklahoman in 1982. ‘If you want to progress and change, where do you go? You don’t want to get more technical and complex. You have to go simpler in the sense you get more into feeling … you’ve got to do what you enjoy doing. It’s as simple as that. There’s no other way to do it and be honest with yourself.’ Three Sides Live (is) a recommended entry point for anyone who came to Genesis via the MTV-era hits, and is now curious about what came before. It’s a perfect bridge to the past.”

The “single side of studio tracks from the double album” conceit only worked during the vinyl era, which in 1982 was within five years of its end. “You Might Recall,” one of the tracks from the studio side, starts in C minor with an energetic, arpeggiated keyboard hook, prominently out front in the mix. As the verse begins at 0:19, keyboardist Tony Banks’ marshy comping texture lets the lavish chord progressions and Phil Collins’ rangy vocal melody shine. At 1:01, the three-section chorus arrives with a shift to C major, rich in compound chords, supported by a pedal-point G in the bass throughout. After eight measures (1:21), part two arrives with a shift to Bb major and a pedal-point F. Finally, part three features eight measures of F major with C in the bass (1:43). At 2:04, a C minor interlude mirroring the hook-centric intro returns, and we cycle through the pattern again. As a parting gift, the second interlude (following verse 2 and chorus 2) shifts up to to new territory — G major with D in the bass (3:47 – 4:08) — before the 3-segment chorus returns and fades.

Swing Out Sister | You On My Mind

As Swing Out Sister’s vocalist, Corinne Drewery, suggested in an appearance on ITV’s Loose Women in 2008 … “a lot of people don’t realize that musicians are still active unless they’re constantly in the singles charts,” (PopMatters). “The insinuation that Swing Out Sister were on some sort of delusional comeback trail after years of inactivity was an indication of the way daytime TV understands the music world – in clichés and brash, broad strokes that don’t necessarily tally with reality.

As anyone whose cultural reference points aren’t confined to Radio 1 could have pointed out, Swing Out Sister have been a remarkably durable, successful and prolific unit … Over the course of three decades, they’ve made increasingly fine-spun music that brushes up against soul, jazz, lounge, exotica, film-soundtrack music, and sunshine pop. Corinne’s smooth, elegant vocals are still the perfect complement to Andy Connell’s elaborate, electronic-orchestral soundscapes.

… Swing Out Sister … pulled out all the stops for a fully orchestrated album (Kaleidoscope World, 1989) that went even deeper into retro cinema and Bond-theme motifs than the debut. It was more challenging, but also more rewarding, as it was characterized by sweeping grandeur, unabashed glamour, high romance, and luscious intrigue. Perhaps as a consequence, its songs didn’t succeed as singles quite as consistently as those on the first album, with only ‘You on My Mind’ rupturing the UK Top 40. Regardless of that, it remains an artistic peak.”

The sole hit from the album certainly boasts an incandescent wide-screen feel. Starting in D major, the first verse shifts to Eb major at 0:25. 0:45 brings a short pre-chorus in Gb mixolydian, leading into a chorus (0:51) which transitions back to D major. The pattern continues from there.

Many thanks to composer, performer, and devoted music theoretician Ari S. for this wonderful contribution to MotD — her third!

Cheap Trick | Tonight It’s You

“Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between ’60s pop, heavy metal, and punk,” (Qobuz). “Their sound provided a blueprint for both power pop and arena rock; it also had a long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands of the ’80s and ’90s (and beyond), who often relied on the same combination of loud riffs and catchy melodies.

The band’s early albums were filled with highly melodic, well-written songs that drew equally from the crafted pop of the Beatles, the sonic assault of the Who, and the tongue-in-cheek musical eclecticism and humor of the Move.” From most accounts, the mid-80s was a bit of a lull for the band creatively, but one strong single resulted from its 1985 album Standing on the Edge: “the silvery-sounding ‘Tonight It’s You,’ which peaked just outside the Top 40 at number 44 in the fall of 1985.”

Starting in F# major, the tune’s long pre-chorus in B major appears at 0:59 leading us to a chorus in D major (1:19 -1:41). The pattern continues from there.

Boston | Amanda

” … For the first half of the ’80s, Boston were the ghosts in the corporate-rock machine … When Boston’s third album did come out … the lead single from that third album gave Boston their first and only #1 hit … By 1986, Boston were men out of time,” (Stereogum). “Scholz was still conjuring symphonies of antiseptic harmony out of his guitars, and (vocalist) Brad Delp was still wailing out Scholz’s melodies with a high-pitched fervor. “Amanda,” Boston’s only chart-topping single, came out late in 1986, but it was so perfectly ’70s that the song didn’t even have a music video.

… Scholz made guitars sound like keyboards and violins. Boston took crunching riffage from the Grand Funks of the world, the huge-selling and arena-ready boogie bands. They took crystalline harmonies from British prog and art-rock bands. They took at least a bit of melodic charge from the Beatles and the Beach Boys. These were disparate influences, but Scholz made them sound as sealed-off and airtight as the spaceships that he always put on his album covers.

… Before any of his peers, Scholz had figured out how to remove all the grit and grime from rock records, and that ultra-clean sound persisted, largely unchanged, into the mid-’80s. Scholz was playing with synths, and with guitars that sounded like synths, long before most other rockers, so he sounded relatively comfortable in the ’80s synth-rock zeitgeist. And “Amanda” came out at just the right time to capitalize on the growing backlash against the arty British synthpop of the early MTV era. Boston’s sound was a distant ancestor to the big pop sound of the mid-’80s, and that sound, combined with whatever nostalgic affection people had for those first two Boston albums, presumably helped drive “Amanda” up the charts.”

Built in G major overall, this power ballad shifts upward to a I/v progression in E major for its short bridge at 2:59. The key change is compelling enough that the chord progression majestically unwinds not once but twice, unaccompanied by a vocal or an instrumental solo — just a gentle, minimal guitar hook! The lead vocal eventually rejoins, followed somehow by a sneaky broad-daylight reversion to the original key while the bridge is still in effect (3:30).

Julian Cope | World Shut Your Mouth

“Retreating from the collapse of the (band) Teardrop Explodes to his hometown of Tamworth UK, Julian Cope produced his first solo effort,” (World Shut Your Mouth, 1984) … “The result is a surprisingly vibrant, rich album that shows Cope easily moving on from his group days while retaining his unique powerful and natural gifts for singing and songwriting,” (AllMusic). “If there’s something about the sound of World that suggests its early-’80s recording dates … Cope’s own particular, heavily psych-into-pop-inspired goals aren’t lost in it.

Some of his songs are so inspired that one just has to wonder how in the world they didn’t end up as hits somewhere … Throughout World, Cope demonstrates why he’s one of the best, most unaffected singers in rock around, his vocals carrying sweep and passion without sounding like he’s trying to impress himself or others.”

Built in an uptuned B major overall, there’s a brief key-of-the-moment shift (2:28 -2:36) up a whole step to C# after verses and choruses 1 and 2, an instrumental break, and another chorus before a return to the original key. But at 3:06, C# major is back to accompany us through the instrumental outro.

Off Course | Yes-No

“Off Course … enjoyed a 25-year career run … but its influence is still felt in later acts such as Yuzu or Kobukuro. The group was formed in 1964 by a bunch of high schoolers … who teamed up to play at a local festival,” (AllMusic). They continued playing on the festival circuit during their college years, debuted live as headliners in 1972, and released their first LP in 1973. They released several Japanese top ten singles in 1980 and 1981; “We Are (1980), their eighth album, was the band’s first full-length to top the Oricon charts, followed by three more in the next two years. The group played in Los Angeles and Japanese TV featured them in documentaries.” The band played at Live Aid in 1986 and broke up in 1989.

A track from We Are, “Yes-No,” is now considered something of a classic within the distinctive Japanese “City Pop” genre. Beginning in Ab minor, the track makes an early shift to A minor before the vocal makes its appearance (0:34).

Many thanks to our Brazilian listener/reader Julianna A. for suggesting this track — her sixth submission to MotD!

Was (Not Was) | Spy in the House of Love

It’s difficult to sum up the 80s cult favorite band Was (Not Was), founded in 1979 in Detroit by David Weiss and Don Fagenson, who adopted the unlikely stage names David Was and Don Was. “‘Don and I started recording in the Pleistocene Era, with Fred Flintstone producing,’ says David Was in the promotional materials accompanying the release of punk-funk band’s retrospective compilation Pick of the Litter 1980 – 2010,” (Slant Magazine). “… (The band) fashioned some of the most cracked, amusing, disturbing non-sequiturs of 1980s no-wave. The band’s early work straddled the dividing line between post-disco and arty punk, resulting in three propulsive smart-stupid underground dance tracks …

Still, Was (Not Was) seemed adamant to avoid being pigeonholed as brainy outcasts from Boogie Wonderland, and their following few albums would prove them to be adept musical scavengers, true Warholian kitchen-sink artists. Be it recruiting Ozzy Osbourne to drone-rap ‘You can’t sue Buddha for libel’ over a electro-pop ditty … or inviting Mel Tormé to croon an elegant piano lounge neo-standard about a boy named Zaz who nearly choked to death one night in the park, Was (Not Was) made invention its own reward … though Robert Christgau sort of had the band’s number when he backhandedly complimented ‘It’s worth five minutes on David Letterman,’ you have to remember, that was when Letterman was really, really cool.”

1987’s “Spy in the House of Love” featured the Was “brothers” on bass and keys, allowing their hand-picked band to take center stage. The synth-heavy textures betray the tune’s late-80s vintage, but the track’s pop-funk sensibilities rule the day. Thoroughly in keeping with the band’s eclectic reputation, the track hit #21 on the UK Singles chart, #13 on the Irish pop chart, #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #77 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/HipHop chart. It even reached #1 on the US Dance Club chart, but somehow still takes a back seat to the band’s terminally goofy “Walk the Dinosaur.” Starting in G minor, the track shifts up a full step to A minor from 3:33 – 3:50. The tonality then reverts to the original key — not directly but rather via a compelling double chromatic step-down. Don’t listen to the lyrics too closely unless you’re thoroughly prepared — file them under R for “restraining order!”

Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this wonderful submission!

The Waitresses | Christmas Wrapping

Chris Butler, the songwriter and guitarist on The Waitresses’ cult classic “Christmas Wrapping,” (1981): “‘I was such a Scrooge. I hated Christmas! Also, I worked as a freelance journalist,” (The Guardian). “In December in New York, everyone with a job takes a long holiday, so I’d get offered work I was too poor to turn down. I’d have all this stuff to do when everyone else was having their eggnog. And I poured my sourness into this song. The first words I wrote down were: Bah humbug. The chorus went: Merry Christmas. But I think I’ll miss this one this year. It’s about two people alone at Christmas who meet while buying cranberry sauce, and get together. Of course, it had to have a happy ending – it’s Christmas! – but it was tongue in cheek. … I still get grumpy at Christmas. Every year, when I get stuck in traffic because of idiots buying crap for their unloved in-laws, that song always seems to come on the radio. And then I think: Lighten up, man, it’s Christmas.’”

Tracy Wormworth (bass and backing vocals): “‘At the time, Good Times by Chic was out; for bass players, Bernard Edwards’ badass bassline was iconic. I wasn’t trying to rip it off, but I was heavily inspired by it. I sat in the studio and worked out note for note what I would play. Like the band, the song is a real mix. I had no idea how catchy the song would prove to be. It would trip me out if I walked into a chain store and it was playing.”

After the second verse and second instrumental chorus (complete with its slightly off-kilter hook from the horns), a brief instrumental bridge shifts up a perfect fourth from 2:10 – 2:30. After reverting to the original key, the track’s bridge returns at 4:07 – 4:27 before a final extended chorus (this time with vocals proclaiming the hook!) wraps up the tune.